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His Future is Being Written By a Woman He Doesn�t Know
Stranger than Fiction: His Life Is Just Written That Way

One day Harold Crick began hearing the voice of a British woman narrating his every step. While Harold attempts to respond to the mysterious voice, it never acknowledges him. What at first was a suspected case of schizophrenia is actually something much more unconventional, and perhaps more difficult to diagnose, much less treat.

Publication date: October 1, 2011

His Future is Being Written By a Woman He Doesn�t Know
Stranger than Fiction: His Life Is Just Written That Way

One day Harold Crick began hearing the voice of a British woman narrating his every step. While Harold attempts to respond to the mysterious voice, it never acknowledges him. What at first was a suspected case of schizophrenia is actually something much more unconventional, and perhaps more difficult to diagnose, much less treat.

Harold is a straight-laced auditor for the IRS. Crick has no friends and, except for his co-workers, he remains in complete solitude in his barren apartment. Harold is also quite compulsive.

Each movement is synchronized to the second and carried out with extreme precision. For example, he does not simply brush his teeth until they appear clean, but he must count each stroke; if he is one or two strokes short the brushing is insufficient. Every sensory object is subjected to precise mathematical analysis.

One day the lonesome auditor�s watch stopped ticking; Harold asks a passerby the time and then resets his watch appropriately. Just then, Harold hears a mysterious voice informing him that resetting his watch has initiated his imminent death.

From this point forward his life is narrated in a step-by-step fashion by author Karen Eiffel, though the novelist�s identify is unknown to Crick. Frightened and confused, Crick visits a psychiatrist who suggests that he is suffering from schizophrenia; with time however, she begins to realize that Harold is not suffering from mental illness, but that an anonymous writer is actually shaping his future down to the finest details.

The psychiatrist is able to connect her patient with literary theorist Professor Jules Hilbert, portrayed by award wining actor Dustin Hoffman. As Harold relates the ghostly narrator�s words to Jules, the professor searches for clues that might help him identify the author.

Harold is fortunate when he overhears a television interview and recognizes Eiffel�s distinct voice. Aside from being relentlessly pestered by Eiffel, he soon discovers that each of her books end identically, and that all of her lead characters are eventually killed.

The novelist has almost finished her book and has been brainstorming for days attempting to create Crick�s perfect demise. This buys him some time to perhaps find the author and alter his destiny.

Will Ferell�s performance in �Stranger Than Fiction� received an Academy Award nomination.

This film is rated PG-13 due to some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language, and nudity.